Strictly ballroom

Wu Husheng, a principal dancer with Shanghai Ballet, leads a public class. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

With a fellow member of the studio, Pan will perform a Broadway-style dance to the music of the Academy Award-winning film La La Land. Pan said she is now focused on putting up a good performance and has been going to the gym for up to three hours every day.

"I like dances that have a strong rhythm and sense of power. I have always identified myself as a weightlifting tomboy.

"Learning to dance has helped me discover a new side of myself which I was never aware of. I am very much immersed in the beauty of dance and music."

Ma Yi'ao, 25, a dancer, choreographer and actor who graduated from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, is working with dancers to choreograph the performance in June.

"You cannot expect these women to have the same technique as a young dancer who has professional training," he said. "What I aspire to achieve is for them to present the beauty of their age and maturity. Dancing is also a way for them to preserve their youthfulness."

Ma said his experience with helping the program participants has been fulfilling because he finds great joy in helping ordinary people who know little about dance to take to the stage in just a few months. He emphasized that one does not have to dance like Yang Liping, one of the most acclaimed dancers in China, to feel the pleasure it induces.

This year the acclaimed Shanghai Ballet Troupe also started to provide free classes to the public. These classes are held every two months and only 50 slots are available each time. The first class was held in February. The next will be in June.

Xin Lili, director of the company, says the goal of the initiative is to introduce the art of ballet to the wider public.

The class has been popular with the public. "It was so hard to enroll in this class," says Ye Shuping, 63, a retiree who was among the participants of the second class in April. "I had to continuously dial the hotline using three mobile phones."

Ye, a fitness enthusiast, says he practices yoga, enjoys swimming and has always been interested in ballet. During his class, he and other dance enthusiasts were coached by the company's principle dancer Wu Husheng.

"The class helped me realize how difficult the ballet dancers' movement is," says a former schoolteacher surnamed Zeng.

"Now I understand what hardship dancers have to go through and I have developed a respect for them."